Nothing More, Nothing Less
by freelancejouster
Summary: Draco and Ginny meet in vulnerable places in their life and have to grow and tell their families of their engagement. Rated M for some sexy time and swearing. DM/GW, GW/HP, HP/LL, RW/HG
1. Chapter 1

**An idea I've been toying with for awhile, which I'm really excited about. If I'm right, this should be quite a lengthy fic, so this is just the beginning! It's set about seven years after the trio leaves Hogwarts. As before, I don't own anything from the Potterverse, I just love the characters more than most real people. No infringement and all of that.**

**I think I've finally finished adding things, off to start the next chapter. Review if you like it?**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Hermione, Luna, and Ginny were gathered in the kitchen of the small cottage Ron and Hermione had built in the hills near the Burrow. The home constituted a compromise between Ron and his mother: Mrs. Weasley had tried insisting that the newly married couple live with her, while Ron had wanted to move somewhere like Bulgaria or at least Romania. Now, almost five years later, their home was entirely different from the Burrow's cramped and eclectic interior, though cozy in a similar way; the rooms were airy and the woods pale. The couple had spent several months finding pieces of furniture from flea markets and fabrics that Hermione adored to magick them together which made everything come together wonderfully.

Earlier that day, Luna and Hermione had been shopping in Diagon Alley and had stopped over in the Bakery which Ginny had started with money that George had given her as start up. Nowadays, The Enchanted Cupcake was making a modest income-by no means near as successful as Weasley's Wizard Wheezes had been its first couple years, but making enough that Ginny had been able to pay more than half of the start up money back to the remaining twin. Upon showing their purchases to a slightly alarmed-looking Ginny, they'd noticed the engagement ring glittering on her finger and dragged her out the door, calling to her assistant, Louisa, that Ginny was taking a long lunch break.

Louisa merely smiled and waved after the group, laughing softly and shaking her head.

The girls bombarded their friend with a hundred questions as soon as they'd reached Hermione's home.

"I met him a while ago. I wasn't really even looking, not after the end of Harry and I..." Ginny's voice trailed off. The way they had ended still weighed on her heavily. The things both of them had said, they people they'd become. Despicable. All of it.

Hermione patted the younger woman on the back consolingly while Luna, true to form stayed stationary, elbows propped on the table and head cupped in her pale hands, staring dreamily into space. Ginny tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear and the new engagement ring on her finger flashed in the sun filtering through the window.

"Forget about Harry, I never liked you two together anyways. Who's the _new_ guy?" Luna asked, her voice popping through the mist of Ginny's old memories. She shook her head to free herself from them.

"Yeah," Hermione chimed in, smiling, in an attempt to distract her friend, "do we know him?"

"You never liked me and Harry together? You never told me before today, miss," Ginny said with a smile, pushing the memories of the previous relationship to the back of her mind to tease her friend.

"Oh, she's only saying that because she fancies him," said Hermione with a laugh and wave of her hand. Then, realizing what she'd said, the brunette yelped and clapped her hands over her mouth, having turned bright red, her eyes wide. "Oh, I know I wasn't to say anything and Luna, I'm so sorry."

"You and Harry?" Ginny asked, with a small smile, "That might just work. You and he were always a bit more connected than he was to everyone else. The thestrals and all that. You understand him a bit more."

A small voice in the back of her mind whimpered, but Ginny ignored it.

Luna, oblivious to Ginny's inner thoughts, squealed and then said, "Well, it's nothing big yet, we've just been on a few dates. But, that's not important. We're here today because _you_ are engaged to someone you've never introduced us to, which is just completely unacceptable, so. Do we know him?"

Ginny's smile faded; she bit her lip and fidgeted with the blue gingham tablecloth and ventured, "You definitely_ know_ him."

"We went to school with him, then, I'd guess," Luna said, cocking her head, as if remembering something she wasn't quite sure of. Ginny merely nodded, now picking at the chipping purple nail polish on her left thumbnail.

Hermione squinted slightly and pursed her lips, "If you're ashamed of him, why did you agree to marry him? We're going to have to meet him sometime, I mean-"

She was cut off abruptly by Ginny bursting, "I'm not _ashamed_ of him, not in the slightest. I _love_ him for fuck's sake! He's a wonderful man and he's kind to me and provides for me and knows just what to say-"

"Sounds like a Slytherin," Luna joked. Hermione let out a laugh and began to say that Ginny would never, but then saw how pale the red-haired girl had turned.

There was a long pause before Ginny spoke up, her voice defiant but soft, "And if he is?" She didn't look either of her friends in the eye, her cheeks flushed and the polish on her left hand almost completely gone.

"I, for one, would denounce her," Luna said, completely deadpan. Hermione abruptly laughed and then looked to Luna to make sure she'd been joking. The pale girl's face was broken in a wide grin.

Hermione crossed to Ginny's side of the table and hugged her tightly. She spoke softly, "We can't help who we fall in love with, Sweetheart. It doesn't matter now and it wouldn't have mattered before. We'll support you no matter what. Though, it's easier to support you if you tell us who exactly we're supporting next to you..." she teased lightly.

And Ginny said his name so softly that Hermione wasn't sure that she'd heard her friend correctly. "Excuse me?" Piped Luna from her spot across the table.

Ginny took a deep breath and looked up with a smile slowly spreading across her face at the formation of his name, "Draco Malfoy."

The name hung in the air for a long moment until Luna gasped in a rush, "Oh, he was so attractive at Hogwarts, I bet he's a total babe now!"

"Oh, he's so attractive, you don't even know," Ginny said with a relieved laugh.

"And, how is he? I'll bet he's tremendous in the sack! A body like that..."

Ginny laughed and turned to Hermione, Ginny's face falling as she saw that the brunette was looking rather worse for wear. "Hermione?" Ginny asked softly, placing her hand on her friend's arm, "Are you alright?"

"I was just..." Hermione trailed off and then said quickly, "Just think of how the boys will take it, Ginny, they used to be such rivals and now... Ron'll kill him! Ron'll outright kill him! He will!" She realized how hysterical she sounded and then took a deep breath and spoke slowly, choosing her words very carefully, "I support you, I think, it's just... think of all the history we have against him. _We_ only know the version of him who terrorized us during Hogwarts and I think it will take a lot for us to change our opinion of him... I am willing to try and forget, or even possibly attempt to start afresh, but it has to be _you_ who tells Ron and Harry," Ginny looked alarmed but Hermione pressed on, "yes, you even have to tell Harry. It takes more than a minute to get over hurt, love. Likely, it'll take more than a year."

Ginny had realized that the boys would need to know at some point and had mostly toyed with the idea of a sort of blurted announcement of her intention to marry Draco Malfoy at a busy family dinner and then just sort of run until the lot of them simmered down. Or perhaps just bringing him along for one. They were a strong family, no one got kicked out for long. Hell, the lot of them were even talking Percy again after he'd given them up for the Ministry all those years ago. Everyone used it against him in arguments, but still. Draco was a _person_ for fuck's sake.

The little voice in the back of her mind whispered that a person might be worse.

She hadn't thought of telling Harry, though. Well, that was wrong. She'd thought about telling him often, but never considered that she would be the one to actually go about telling him. She hadn't been around him much since their falling out. Sure, she saw them at gatherings of friends, but they rarely spoke and when they were forced to it was merely pleasantries. Nothing solid or of substance. They'd never really connected, she and Harry, they had so little in common and he never had as much time for her as he'd had for saving the world or even Ron and Hermione. But she always got a little fluttery feeling behind her navel when she thought of him. Telling him about her new fiance was almost as terrifying as the prospect of actually marrying Draco Malfoy.

She still found it incredible that _he_ could be interested in her. That she, Ginerva Weasley could be the object of Draco Malfoy's affection. This terror wasn't embarrassing or scary, but more of awe. And a bit of nervousness, as if it might end at any second.

Ginny checked her watch and saw that it was time she got back to The Enchanted Cupcake. She hugged Luna first and then Hermione, and when they'd broken apart, she held her friend at arm's length and asked softly, "Do you still support me?"

Hermione took a deep breath and then, after a moment, nodded, "I support you fully, dear, but I can't say that I accept him. Will you bring him around sometime?"

Ginny laughed and hugged her tightly, "Yes! Next week? Saturday morning?"

Hermione smiled and nodded, "Saturday morning, but _you'll_ need to tell Ron beforehand."

"Oh, I can probably do that," said Ginny with a smile, and she walked to the edge of the yard and apparated with a pop.

* * *

When she returned to The Enchanted Cupcake, Louisa was completely covered in flour and there was a line of seven witches and wizards behind the counter, each waiting to order something from her. Ginny shooed Louisa to the back to finish whatever had coated her in flour and expertly took over, charging a grumpy old wizard extra on his coffee and three muffins and giving the five-year-old daughter of a regular client a free frosted cookie.

"Aye, I'm sorry Miss Ginny," called Louisa from the back as Ginny handed over the cookie to the little girl.

"Oh, it's not your fault, I didn't realize how long I'd be gone. I hadn't realized I'd be leaving at all actually. So, you needn't be sorry. _I'm_ rather sorry, in fact," replied Ginny, half listening to herself ramble and half plating a piece of red velvet cake for the little girl's mother. She poured a glass of milk and set them both on the counter. To the woman, she said, "One galleon, eight sickles, and three knuts." The woman smiled and placed a handful of coins on the counter and left with her food. The duo sat at a small table in the corner of the bakery, the daughter's legs dangling from the chair as she was far too short to reach the floor.

"What'd your friends take you for anyway?" asked Louisa, peeking around the door, relatively cleaner but flour now-or still-on her nose.

"They came in to show me what they'd bought and saw the ring."

"It's from Mr. Malfoy, innit?" Louisa's voice sounded every so slightly on edge, as if she were disgruntled about something.

Ginny didn't notice and smiled to herself, admiring the ring in the lights adorning the counter. The silver band wrapped around her finger intricately, crisscrossing and weaving among itself. Beneath, small diamonds and emeralds peeked out, almost as if they were hiding within the ring. And then, in the center was a large diamond, the silver metal wrapping ever so slightly against it and around it. It was beautiful and, according to Draco, ancient, handed down from his grandmother from a great great great somebody or other who was unfortunate enough to have a goblin fall in love with them. "That it is," Ginny responded to Louisa.

"Din't he used to be one of them death eaters?" asked Louisa. Ginny stiffened and turned towards the door where the girl stood, she quickly ducked out of the room and called softly, "I was just askin'."

After a long moment, Ginny responded, "A lot of us did things we weren't proud of while we were teenagers. I understand if you don't understand that, as you're still a teenager _yourself_," the emphasis was hard and meant to reprimand Louisa, who, sure enough, blurted back that she wasn't so young but Ginny cut her off, "I'm not finished yet. I've been through a lot more than you, you weren't even at Hogwarts during the war. I fought in it. I lost a brother during it. I made decisions I wasn't old enough to make and did things that I regret. I've lived a lot more than you, even if I'm not that much older than you. Trust me to make my own decisions." She paused for a moment and then ended with, "you weren't just asking."

Louisa was silent for a long time until she said, "I apologize. I didn't realize how offensive my question was. I just... I don't want to see you hurt," and then, as an afterthought almost, she added softly, "You're kind."

Ginny smiled slightly and then said, "You're still a brat."

Louisa smiled as she put the bread she'd been making in the oven and replied, "I know, I practice."

At four thirty, they shooed the last of the customers out the door, turned the sign on the door to closed, and Ginny locked up. She walked to the end of the street and apparated home, anxious to see her boyfriend.

No, her _fiance._


	2. Chapter 2

**The Second Chapter's finally ready for daylight, though I'll probably keep adding and tweaking for a few days :') As before, I don't own anything of the Potterverse, I just love J.K. Rowling's characters more than real people. Review if you like it?**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Ginny apparated to the street outside of her apartment building and almost landed on top of a small, hunched elderly man who laughed slightly maniacally and then moved out of her way and continued on his way. She called apologies behind him and upon not being acknowledged, she jogged to catch up and put her hand on his shoulder, addressing him, "I am deeply sorry, sir. I didn't think of someone in the street as there's not usually many people about, walking around. Please forgive me."

The man's wizened face creased in confusion and he mumbled something in a language Ginny wasn't familiar with and continued on his way. She was left in the street, not knowing what to say. She watched as he ambled to the end of the sidewalk and then turned the corner and she was alone. A wisp of wind blew fiercely against her shoulders, barely covered by her thin purple tank top, and she shivered slightly, glancing around the street before walking inside her building, an uneasy feeling following her.

She trudged up two flights of stairs and walked down to the end of the hall where her apartment was. Ginny pulled out her wand and murmured the special unlocking spell that Hermione had devised in her first years at the Ministry-where she worked to make the wizarding world more secure and safe.

The door opened and Ginny walked inside, smiling as she smelled Draco's favorite tea on the stove and heard him typing from the study. She heard him pause and then his voice filter over, "Ginny? How was your day, Darling?"

"Well..." she hung her bag up on one of a set of hooks along the wall and went to the teapot to sip some of the brew, "The morning was good, George did some advertising for me, I guess, as he made these disgusting, prank cookies for people to buy for their friends and hung a sign next to it that was like, 'Hey, if you want cookies that actually taste good, go visit The Enchanted Cupcake,' which was great for business. But then", here, Ginny's mouth became incredibly dry, but she swallowed hard and pressed on, "just after noon, Luna and Hermione came in and saw the ring you gave me and asked eight million questions and Hermione freaked out and..." Ginny trailed off, emotions building in the back of her throat and not wanting to sob. Instead, she sat down where she was.

She heard him come down the hallway and kneel next to her. He kissed her forehead softly and she looked up at him, butterflies flitting around her stomach from his soft touch. "Tell me we're not crazy," she whispered.

He smiled softly and ran his pale fingers through her red locks and whispered back, "I can't tell you that, love. I _can_ tell you that we're brilliant together and I adore you endlessly and that I am more than willing to give up everything for you: money, friendship, family," he trailed his hands down her face, rubbing gently over her cheek, and down, lower, to cup her breast, "You'll be my family. You're all I want, love, nothing more, nothing less."

And she leaned up towards him and kissed him soundly. Immediately, Draco pulled her against his chest and kissed her back, anchoring her to him with his strong arms. Ginny's entire body felt like it was waking up after a long sleep, every part of her, from her forehead to her fingertips to her toes, felt like it was coursing with electricity at his touch. His strong hands traveled down her slender body, cupping and tracing her features.

She darted her tongue against Draco's lips, which he parted ever so slightly to allow her access. Their tongues twined and Ginny moaned softly, pulling his face even closer to her. And suddenly, to Ginny's delight, he was on top of her, pulling her shirt over her head and his cock hard against her inner thigh. He kissed every inch of skin he could, his hands traveling behind her to unhook her bra, which, with a gasp from Ginny, fell away. Draco's tongue rasped over her nipples, eliciting more, louder moans from Ginny, who was silently thanking Hermione for the noise-canceling charm which had been woven into the lock.

Ginny pulling his shirt over his head and ran her hands over his bare chest and shoulders, enjoying the feel of his lean muscles and smooth skin under her fingertips. She traced down his forearms, and as was customary, he stiffened ever so slightly when her fingertips brushed over the fading dark mark on his left arm. Aggressively he pinned Ginny's arms above her head and held her there to stop her from touching his past.

After a few more, sweet, sensual moments, Draco entered her there, on the kitchen floor and they became one for the moment, rocking and sweating and moaning and feeling together. They laid together, after, for a long moment before Ginny complained of the cold tiles and Draco slipped his slacks back on, carrying her to the bedroom where they laid together a while longer, Draco running his fingers through her hair and she breathing in his smell after a day of being away from him.

"So, today was...weird for me," started Ginny, "How was yours, love?"

She rolled onto Draco's bare chest and looked into his clear, gray eyes which crinkled up at the corners in a smile. "Well, I slept for several hours after you left for work, I made myself tea, I popped over to my assistant's to drop off a new poetry anthology idea and pick up the editing on the book and ended up writing a few letters in response to fan mail, went 'round to Mother's for lunch, came back here, made more tea, and then wrote and implemented changes while I waited for you to get back from work."

"You get fan mail?" asked Ginny, curious. They'd been together for just less than a half year, and living together for almost a month now, and she knew that he wrote under a pen name because of his past and did well for himself as he didn't really need or want his family money, but she'd never really realized how much weight he had as a writer until that moment.

"Well, yes," answered Draco. "Most of it I don't even read, Astoria goes through it and finds the most compelling and the most interesting and the donations and such and I read that while she gets to read the boring and short and pointless."

"Hmm. I didn't realize how important you are," said Ginny, kissing his nose.

Draco pretended to preen for a moment, and said, "Yes, I'm critically important."

Ginny laughed and licked his cheek in play, then asked "so, how's your mum?"

"Arrogant but understanding. I'm convinced that she has a sweet spot for you, though, as she asked for you by name instead of calling you 'that Weasley girl' as she used to when I first started mentioning you."

Ginny laughed and rolled off of him, frowning as she stretched her back out with a few loud cracks. Draco was used to this but looked slightly concerned and shifted towards her to rub her back. "Mmm, lower?" she asked, and Draco complied until her back felt more like it should.

When he'd finished, Ginny sat up and blurted, "To pacify Hermione, I agreed to brunch with her and Ron and Harry and everyone, really, two Saturdays from now. Is that alright? I just, she wanted to meet you how you are now and said that she was willing to put everything in the past if it'd seemed like you... if you got along with them." Ginny's face was anxious.

Draco looked directly into her eyes for a moment and then looked down at his hands and said softly, "We all made mistakes at Hogwarts. They're just as much at fault as I am."

A shiver went down Ginny's spine, she didn't want to anger Draco by defending her friends, but it made her queasy to have him insult them in such a way. She set her jaw and took a deep breath, tears in the corners of her eyes, and said, "How do you figure?"

A frightening look crossed Draco's face and he laughed, an awful, empty sound; Ginny scooted away from him slightly, uneasy. Draco spoke, "Right from the start, they thought that they were better than me, the three of them, "the golden trio", everyone adored them thought the were always breaking rules and getting in trouble and putting people's lives in danger and somehow I got put as a bad guy for having money and getting put in Slytherin.

"So I started acting the part and listening to my father more. And then I was just like him. And then I woke up one day and I was twenty and I hated all the decisions I'd made to be like him and to be not like "the golden trio," and I wanted to kill myself. So I wrote about it under a different name and it sold well. And I still hated my life, but I had even more money to sit about and I had found a talent that actually made people _like _me, which had been rare for the past...several years. But, the self-hate kept hitting me, wave after wave of it. And, well, you know what happened after that..."

Ginny was confused for a moment and was about to say that she didn't know what happened at all, but then it hit her. Where they met.

She hugged him to her chest, and after a moment of stiffness, he hugged her back tightly. She whispered to him softly, "I'll never let you go."

And Draco looked up at her, softened by her hug and in that moment, she felt so connected to him that she teared up ever so slightly. He brought his hand to Ginny's face and brushed away the salty water and mumbled something softly. Ginny hadn't heard so she asked him to repeat himself. The second time she heard him, however.

"So, breakfast at the Weasel's?"


	3. Chapter 3

**The third chapter's ready for the public's eyes finally! I've run through a few times as I work on the next sections and have changed a few things that may have been (okay, were confusing) before. As before, I don't own any part of the Potterverse, I just love them more than most real people.**

**Enjoy! And remember to review!**

* * *

The next several days passed smoothly and without incident. The bakery did well, Draco continued to write, and he and Ginny continued to spend as much time as they could together.

She didn't tell him out loud, but Ginny loved waking up next to him every morning and seeing his pale face so at ease. Even more so, she loved sleeping next to the person she cared about most.

The one thing that marred the building of their life together was the thought of having to tell Ron and Harry about Draco before the breakfast next Saturday. The thought built and bothered Ginny daily, so much so that Draco eventually decided _for_ her that she would just tell the two of them at the monthly Weasley dinner, which was, coincidentally, the Wednesday before the breakfast was scheduled.

Two days before the dinner, Ginny was at the bakery and the thought was apparently occupying her as Louisa, who was in for the other assistant, Geoffry, who apparently had been off doing ridiculous things and landed himself in Saint Mungo's, flicked her arm and said, "Miss Ginny!" quite loudly, quite near her.

Ginny shook her head clear and asked the younger girl what she wanted. In response, Lousia pointed to the bowl of brownies which Ginny had distractedly whisked near flat. Ginny swore softly and reached for extra sugar and peanut butter to attempt to turn the ruined bars into a decent fudge. "I said your name, like, dozens of times. Where is your brain lately?" asked the curly-haired, recent Hogwarts graduate.

"Inflicting worry upon me," laughed Ginny bitterly, flicking her wand so that a wooden spoon sprang up from the counter and started stirring the new ingredients into the ruined brownies. More stirring to solve the over-stirring.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" asked Louisa.

"Not particularly," said Ginny stubbornly and stirring the fudge more fiercely, splattering bits of chocolate from the bowl and onto the women. Louisa opened her mouth to say something as a bit of the batter splashed onto her apron. She closed her mouth again, set her jaw, and went into the front of the bakery, leaving Ginny to herself. Ginny turned to where Louisa had been, wrinkled up her nose, and stopped stirring the fudge. Ginny crossed her arms over her chest and took several deep breaths to calm herself down. It wasn't the girl's fault that she had to introduce Draco Malfoy to the great Harry Potter as her fiance. It wasn't really anyone's fault, except Ginny's own. And that wasn't really a fault but a necessity.

When the two of them had met, there hadn't been anyone to blame for the spark or the warmness that had connected them immediately. There hadn't been anyone to blame for the attraction and the camaraderie that hit them both within the first week. Perhaps they could have blamed the situation or the powerful spells they were under, but they didn't feel the need to.

"Louisa?" called Ginny before digging for a pan to pour the fudge into. She heard the girl talking to a customer and laughing and then after a moment, the ding of the register as Louisa deposited the money they made.

"Yes'm?" asked Louisa, sticking her head around the door frame. Seeing Ginny bent over, her eyes widened and she blushed slightly, but entered the room fully, "Miss Ginny?" she asked, confused.

"Oh, I'm just looking for that damned pan," said Ginny, digging around in the cupboards beneath the table she'd been working on, "You know the one? It's mostly flat, dark gray, supposedly nonstick, though you need piles of butter to make it that way. I always use it for fudge..." she trailed off, halfway inside the cupboard by this time. Louisa crossed to the opposite side of the room, knelt down to the cupboards there, and pulled the pan in question from beneath a stack of bowls.

"We store the flatter pans over here, now, Miss Ginny. It saves room." Louisa set the pan on the counter above Ginny as the red-head extracted herself from the cupboard. Instead of standing, Ginny crossed her legs and sat there, on the floor.

"I am so worried," started Ginny, swallowing hard, "because I have to introduce my fiance to my ex-boyfriend. And this would be something awful to begin with, even if they weren't, like, arch-enemies at Hogwarts. Which they were. And-"

Ginny attempted to continue to try and explain what was going on with her but was interrupted by a shriek from Louisa and her shouting, "YOU USED TO DATE HARRY POTTER?"

Ginny was taken aback by Louisa's exclamation, and watched her jumping around and arm flailing with confused bemusement, eventually answering, "Um, yes?"

"The-most-famous-wizard-of-your-generation-Harry-Potter? The-boy-who-lived-Harry-Potter? The-boy-who-defeated-the-Dark-Lord-who-is-now-an-extremely-handsome-man-Harry-Potter?" Louisa appeared to be hyperventilating and was fanning herself with her hands. Ginny pulled a chair over from the corner and with a flick of her wand, the layer of flour that had been resting on it whisked to the floor.

Louisa sat heavily, still fanning herself and squealing occasionally.

Ginny leaned over her, took a deep breath, and did the thing any good friend would do, by asking, "Yes, all of the above. Would you like to meet him?"

* * *

After an awkward talk with an ever-resilient Kreature who muttered awful things about her entire family while Ginny knelt in the fireplace through which she had flooed only her head, she convinced the stooped, old elf to fetch Harry from the garden where he was practicing qudditch as she knew he would be. For years, he'd had the same schedule. He was so strict with it, needing control over everything, that Ginny could pinpoint exactly what he was doing at any given moment of the day. She understood it, she supposed, as he had never had much control over anything in his life thanks to the Dursleys and then Dumbledore.

Ginny stayed there on the hard floor, her knees starting to hurt from the position, for several minutes. Just as she was debating leaving, half-accepting that Kreature had gone to roam the hallways as was his favorite pastime, she heard a shuffle of feet, arguing voices, and a door shutting. This followed with more scuffling and arguing voices as Harry banished Kreature outside.

"Ginny?" Harry's voice travelled down the hallways to reach her. She shivered slightly, swallowing, and consciously thinking about Draco and how excited Louisa would be in a few minutes.

"Here," called Ginny.

She heard him walk towards her, though various rooms of his over-sized home. He still owned Number 12 Grimwald place, of course (the dangers of selling it being far greater than the thought of an empty house), but couldn't bear living there with all the memories that surfaced regarding himself and more seriously, Sirius. After a long moment, Harry tromped around a corner and she got the full sight of him. She soaked in his windswept hair, his muddy-from-quidditch clothing, and the crooked smile that flew upon his face when he saw her, "Ginny!" he exclaimed as she swallowed hard.

She forced a smile onto her face and asked, "How've you been?"

"Oh, you know. Alright," Harry said, shrugging. "I've just discovered this awesome quidditch move where if you leap from the nose of your broom and like do a flip thing onto a bludger there, you can slip under your broom and then with the momentum from the bludger, you'll land back onto the broom. It feels so amazing when you don't get hit in the ribs. That only even happened once and it was because I aimed wrong and..."

Ginny listened as he enthused over his newfound move, watching his eyes light up and his hands move to emphasize points. There was something so...animated about him that she couldn't help missing the days that they'd had together before the war and before everything got so complicated. Eventually Harry said, "So, enough about me, what brings you here?"

Ginny glanced at his feet because it was easier than looking at his face and remembering everything and said softly, "My friend Louisa who helps me at the bakery fangirled all over the place when I mentioned that I'd dated you," she laughed slightly and continued, "I was wondering if you could possibly come have lunch with her? And then we could catch up a little? There's that shop that Angelia works in sometimes, it's supposed to have great wine for cheap." She looked up at him then, to catch his expression.

Harry looked exasperated and a little let down, saying, "You came here for a fan? I was hoping I would get to hear you say that you wanted to bang me on the floor or something."

Ginny's eyes widened and then she laughed a little too loudly when she realized that he was joking. "Well that was the second option," she quipped.

"So your friend wants to meet me?"

"Yessir," Ginny laughed, at ease now.

He looked down at himself, "Can I change first?"

She nodded and said, "Just come to the store when you're ready. Soon, though, I mean. Louisa might faint or something."

Harry laughed and went to leave the room, "I'll get right on that."

Ginny leaned backwards and was back in The Enchanted Cupcake. The smell of fudge hit her nose and she scampered to the oven to check on the pan. She slipped her favorite blue, polkadotted oven mitts on her hands and pulled the pan from the oven, inhaling deeply. Perfectly done.

"Louisa?" called Ginny, setting the pan down on the counter and making a stream of cool air filter through her wand to blow over the fudge.

"Here!" called Louisa from the register. When she didn't enter the room, Ginny joined her and the front counter and was surprised to see more than a half dozen people in line at the counter

Ginny took over for her, asking, "How can I help you Mrs. Garcia?" to the lady in front of the line.

"Yes," smiled the stooped old women. She was small and wrinkled and still had jet black hair except for gray wisps near her temples. "I was wondering if you could make me some of those special cakes. You know, chocolate. With rum," she smiled sweetly again, blush rising in her cheeks.

"Is there a frosting you'd like?" laughed Ginny.

Mrs. Garcia nodded and ordered cream cheese, specified her designs, and placed an order for four cakes with delivery in a week, "I have a boy I'd like you to meet," she said before leaving, winking conspiratorially, "My son's home from Albania."

"Sorry ma'am, I'm taken," sad Ginny, flashing her ring.

"Well," said the little woman, "the other, then?"

Louisa just shrugged as she handed a couple red velvet cookies to the man who had been in line behind Mrs. Garcia, saying, "I could meet a boy, I suppose."

"He's wonderful," she promised, beaming as she left the store.

The girls just laughed and helped the other witches and wizards in line, doling out buns, cakes, cookies, and juices with heavy-handed generosity that the store was known for already. It was only when they had finished, the customers all seated or headed for the door, that the two of them relaxed, wiped their hands on their aprons, and looked around.

Everyone jumped when Louisa shrieked and fainted, falling to the ground. Ginny glanced over at what the younger girl had seen and discovered none other than Mr. Harry Potter standing in the doorway to the back of the shop.

He cringed and looked down at her and then over at Ginny, asking, puzzled, "Does she do that often?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you for bearing with me while I finished my last year of high school and endured a few months of stressing about how to pay for college and working almost full time. I struggled a lot with writing this chapter, much more so than any of the others, but when the time came for the last half of the chapter, it flowed so easily from my fingertips. I think there's something special, and I think I've finally figured out most of the nuances of what's to come for Draco and Ginny.**

**Enough about me, this chapter is finally ready for YOU, my lovely readers. Tell me what you think in a review and with that help I might be able to get the next chapter out a bit faster!**

**As usual, I own none of the Potterverse, I just love the characters that I've grown up alongside. I wish I could claim part of them, but I can't.**

**Please enjoy :)**

* * *

When Louisa's eyes opened, dwindling light was flickering through the parted curtain. She started to sit up but was almost incompacitated by an incredible headache rooted in the back of her head. _I fell_ she mumbled to herself, bringing her hand to her forehead and rubbing her eyes. A pillow had been situated beneath her but nothing else had moved - Ginny was at the counter where Louisa remembered her to be; she eased her head down onto the softness. A customer peered through the glass that protected their cakes and squinted at her. Louisa smiled in embarrassment and wondered, vaguely, what she was doing on the floor.

She looked around slowly and almost fainted again at the sight of the most powerful, young, hunky, incredibly single wizard in Britain, if not the world, leaning over her, looking quite concerned at her position. Harry James Potter.

"Are you alright there? You took quite a spill," he said, his voice soft, concerned, and ever so slightly rough. Louisa blushed and shrank against the counter slightly, her eyes wide. The redness spread across her face, encompassing her cheeks and then her eyes and finally brushed against her curly black hair. Harry reached out and mussed it gently; Louisa turned an even brighter shade of crimson.

After a moment or so of trying to compose herself, Louisa managed a wane smile and croaked out, "I bet you have that effect on all the ladies."

Ginny's blurt of laughter obscured Harry's thanks and both of them looked up at her, Louisa in confusion and Harry in embarrassment. "Harry's hopeless with women," Ginny informed her co-worker as she took money from the concerned customer. "He once had a relationship with this girl, Cho, who was utterly gorgeous and I'm pretty sure they said about twenty words to each other the whole time they went out. Never really ended that one did you, Harry? Might as well be dating her still." Ginny's smile was a tad forced.

"At least I'm not famous for promiscuity," Harry teased. "Just how many blokes did you date at Hogwarts? Ten, Eleven?"

"Oh, tone it down a bit. Three or four. Maybe five. I don't quite remember," Ginny laughed, easing into the banter. There was a slight tenseness in the room, but much less than Louisa or anyone else had expected.

"Well there was that Michael guy. Corner? Clover? Grover?" Harry brushed his memory off with a whisk of his hand, "Something unimportant. And Dean. And Neville. And-"

"I did not date Neville Longbottom!" exclaimed Ginny, red spots rising high in her cheeks and a good-natured scowl crossing her face.

"You went to the ball with him, did you not?" Harry shot back, smiling.

"And he stepped on my feet the entire time!" Ginny laughed, remembering, "I swear, his shoes were two, three sizes too big for ages. He grew into himself in the end, though, a real heart-throb in the war, wasn't he?"

"Believe me, if he was, I wasn't the one noticing," Harry laughed back.

Louisa smiled softly at the scene and then looked up at Harry, "Could I maybe have your autograph?"

He pulled a napkin off of the counter and then knelt back down beside her, scrawling his name on it quickly and then murmuring aloud, "To Louisa, may Neville Longbottom break your heart." And Louisa burst into embarrassed laughter and put her hand to her forehead at the small pain that blossomed from her temple. "Care to show me around?" asked Harry after a moment. He reached down to grab her hand and she twined her fingers with his, slowly easing herself up to stand just a bit too close to him.

"I would be my pleasure," she said shyly, pulling him along to the back. Ginny listened in mild amusement as Louisa softly explained what everything was in the entire bakery. Harry made murmuring noises of amusement and agreement, having had the tour several times before.

Ginny rested her arms on the glass cake case and reflected on the easiness of the situation. A tiny bit nostalgic, but mostly happy with her life as it was. The only thing that scared her now was telling Harry that she was engaged to Draco-the abrasiveness that conversation would cancel out all of the wonderfulness she was feeling in this moment. She decided then and there that she would tell him after the shop closed tonight.

The last hour that they were open passed quickly and slowly at the same time. As it occurred, it seemed to almost drag with slowness, and then as the clock signaled closing time, it seemed like the hour had passed in a heartbeat or two. Ginny sent Louisa home the moment after the girl had cleaned up the mess of the back room. She left after giving Harry a rather doe-eyed look and a quick smooch on the cheek which left a rather noticeable lipstick ring.

Harry stayed where he'd placed himself the moment the tour was over: leaning against the wall near the door, ready to leave if Ginny told him he was intruding, but in the perfect place to converse with startled and twitterpated customers. He was charming and kind, asking small questions of the crowd and offering wide smiles. His good manners annoyed Ginny, remembering the sullen, shouting Harry she had been so enamored with at Hogwarts.

Ginny touched Harry's arm as the last customer, an elderly woman who waved her cookie after herself, exited the little bakery. Ginny was tired and all she wanted to do was go home to Draco and his warm embrace but she needed to tell Harry about Draco sometime; that time might as well be now. Or, at least, that's what she told herself while she felt so comfortable in Harry's presence again. Harry turned to her, surprised by the contact and closeness. He bent towards Ginny ever so slightly and stayed there for a long moment, looking unsure of himself. Ginny felt a slightly panicked, uneasy feeling clawing from the inside of her stomach and was torn between grimacing and leaning in herself. Before anything happened, Harry's hand swung up and picked a blob of chocolate from the end of a loose piece of hair.

Harry sucked the chocolate off his finger and Ginny fought the urge to laugh at him. A mixture of pity and amusement washed over her as she realized why he'd stuck around. She took his hand in hers, deciding that going to Angelina's restaurant as she had planned would be a very bad idea and to just get it over with. Harry grasped her fingers tentatively-and walked him over to the table in the corner of the bakery where Ginny remembered the young girl's legs swinging.

"Harry James Potter," Ginny started, looking at her hands, her shoes, the chipping edge of the fake wood table. Anywhere but Harry's face. She took a deep breath and made herself look into those green eyes she'd spent so many days gazing into, so many days idealizing. But he had always been just that, an ideal. And when she realized that she didn't fit into the scene that would always be around him, one of photographs and interviews and recanting stories which he used to be so modest about. A tear crept into the corner of her own eye as she remembered the Harry she'd thought he was.

She looked down for a long moment and then decided it was best to just tell him, to just burst out with it and get it over with. She looked up again, this time focusing on his eyebrow instead of his eyes, "I'm engaged, quite recently. I never thought I'd even like him, but getting to know him at St. Mungos... I fell so fast and so hard and he did the same. And when we were no longer so swept up in the moment... I still loved him, and a few months later he proposed," Ginny focused on him to see how he was taking it and added because she couldn't help it, "I am so happy."'

Harry sat in soft, shocked silence for a long moment and then forced a good-natured smile upon his face, saying, "And I'm happy for you, Gin. So who's the lucky bloke?"

Ginny bit the inside of her lip and then said, "Well, you see. That's part of the problem and the reason I felt that I needed to tell you about this now. The man that I am in love with and am going to marry is Draco Malfoy." And as she said the love of her life's name, she saw all the color run out of Harry's face. His eyes took on a slight wetness and his jaw clenched.

Standing from his spot across the table from her, Harry moved heavily as if he were taking precise caution with his limbs. He kept shaking his head as if denying the situation to himself. Finally, before his long, silent, angry walk out the door, he turned to her and spat, "Yeah, real happy for you, Gin. Real fucking happy."

As she watched Harry walk away she felt a distant pang that felt both oddly foreign and misplaced and seemed to resonate through her. She wanted to chase him, to deny the situation, too, wondering, for the first time, if the happiness that she felt when she was with Draco might need be unimportant next to the pain of those closest to her.

* * *

Draco couldn't help himself from glancing at the clock every few minutes, trying not to think about the fact that his fiance was later than she'd ever been coming home from the Enchanted Cupcake, and much, much later than she'd ever been without contacting him. His nails were chewed to the quick and the skin at the edges of the beds was picked raw.

The plot of his book was turning rather dark, as it always seemed to when he didn't see much of Ginny. To be fair, it was because of her that his plots had any happiness or lightness at all, but her absence was significant.

He ran a thin-fingered hand through his untidy blond hair before standing with confidence at what he felt he needed to do to find her. He needed help. He picked up his cup of tea and took a forceful drink, swallowing the last, cold dregs at the bottom with a grimace and a bit of coughing. He smiled weakly to himself, muttering that he couldn't even do that dramatically.

Draco walked slowly to the living room and paced about for a long moment before settling again on what he felt was his only option. He retrieved his wand from the kitchen counter and just as he was about the press the tip to the ugly tattoo on his forearm in an action he hadn't considered in months or performed in years, Ginny burst through the door, looking for all the world as if she'd run several miles. Leaves and other debris were tangled in her wind-swept hair and Draco's wand was knocked from his hand as she leapt upon him in a hug tighter than he'd known her capable of. "I missed you so," Ginny whispered over and over again.

He hugged her tightly back, crushing her against him in turn, relieved at her presence and feeling lighter than he had all day. Resting their foreheads together after a long moment he asked her with a grin and hint of annoyance in his relief, "Do you think Hermione could teach us how to use one of those damned phones?"

Ginny laughed and nodded and resolved to tell Draco of Harry's reaction later.


	5. Chapter 5

**After almost a month of trying to decide exactly what I wanted in this chapter, here it is! I hope you like it. As before, I own no part of the Potterverse and I am not the great J. K. Rowling, however much I wish that I was.**

**Please read, review, and enjoy!**

* * *

In the early hours of the next morning, Draco lay awake, watching the soft curve of Ginny's back rise and fall as she slept soundly. The gray light from the moon filtered through the parted curtains and provided just the barest silhouette of Ginny, of the bed, of the room.

Almost stubbornly, Draco's brain refused to sleep.

Instead, it filled with the thought of what he had been about to do, only hours before, seconds before Ginny had ran through the door, catching him in a crushing hug that left him breathless. He had dropped his wand to the ground and pulled his shirtsleeve down over his forearm as she told him that she'd missed him. Foreheads rested together, they stood like that for several minutes, the day's worries dissipating in the presence of their love. He made some joke of asking if Hermione could help them get a phone, as their lack of communication was mostly due to flooing not being particularly effective for quick messages. Ginny had just nodded, laughing slightly, and holding on to him. He saw something disappear into her mind, something she had been about to say, and he felt mildly guilty that he had distracted her from saying whatever it was. He could use occlumency, but he didn't think twice about it. It was not something one used on friends or loved ones. It was for extracting information.

A shiver went through him as he thought of the things he had extracted in his past. He suddenly felt cold and pulled their silver and black comforter more securely around himself.

Draco wished he could throw his tattoo away, or forget the spells he had needed to learn to become part of the Death Eaters. Even then, when he was joining, he had only joined because he thought it was the best choice. The only choice. He knew spells that could help him forget, but to perform them on himself was risky. At best. Generally, he would ask Ginny to do something like that for him; she was capable of strong magic, but Draco didn't want her finding out that his past still haunted him like this. He supposed he could ask his mother, but she almost refused to use magic lately and he didn't think she'd take kindly to him attempting to forget their past. As much as it was in the past and she had no allegiances to the Death Eaters without Lucious in the picture, she was still a proud, pureblood woman who held a lot of stock in being just that.

Which basically left Astoria in his list of acquaintances, who Draco doubted was capable of such complex spells.

Draco shook his head and pushed his hair off his forehead. "So few allies," he mumbled to himself. Ginny stirred ever so slightly at his voice and he leaned over to kiss her temple gently. She sighed in her sleep and shifted towards him, the blankets slipping from her shoulder to expose the small scar on her back. And one who made it all worthwhile, he thought. Draco smiled and settled in against her, cupping their bodies together, finally drifting to sleep.

Draco's dream was filled with the dismal circumstances during which he and Ginny Weasley had come in contact again.

* * *

Starting less than a year after the war, Draco had started a spiral of drink, self-harm, and depression that lead him into darker places than he ever had been under the hands of Voldemort and his father. The effects of the war lay so heavily on him that it caused him physical pain at just being aware of his surroundings and past. And the emotional pain was much stronger and much harder to block out. By the time he was twenty-one, he was drunk for weeks at a time, so much so that even his mother, who had gone into a similar, though less severe spiral, when his father was sent to Azkaban, begged him to come out of it.

When that failed, she had instructed the house elves to throw every last bit alcohol that they could find away. Seeing them rummage through his things and sniff out his hidden stashes, Draco became violent and not wanting to hurt his mother, the only family he really had left, he slunk to his bathroom, pulled his wand from his pocket, muttered an incantation, and sliced a thin, straight line through the tattoo on his forearm, followed by several others, deeper. He then crawled into the tub, turned on the shower, and lay there in pain and withdrawal until a house elf found him in the early hours of the morning, healed him though he kicked the creature away, and screamed bloody murder for his mother.

She wept. He felt a mix of guilt and power. And nausea.

The next day, he flew to Diagon Alley on his broom and bought up a bottle of the strongest fire whiskey he could find and four of its brothers. The elf who tended to the grounds found him in the gardening shed two mornings later, stark naked with four and a half empty bottles around him. This elf had far less experience with him, being a grounds elf and not a house elf, and did not worry for his health or safety in the slightest. Instead, he grabbed Draco by the ear and apparated the both of them in front of his mother. Who fainted at the sight of them.

The next morning, his mother summoned Draco before her and poured him a cup of tea.

They sat in silence as she ate her small biscuits and drank most of her cup before she asked him, "So, how are you?"

He considered his headache and grimaced, rasping, "Quite awful."

"Have you considered not trying to destruct yourself?" she asked him.

"But I have so much fun doing it," he quipped with a sarcastic smile. He drank a bit of the tea and then leaned back in his chair.

"Have you tried other things?" she asked. There was a pregnant pause during which it became quite clear that he had not. "I wrote," she offered softly, looking down. He recalled the slim, pastel notebooks she was always seen scribbling in, even now. As a shadow passed over her pale face, a small flicker in the back of Draco's mind reminded him how much she had been through. And how much he was putting her through now by behaving this way.

"I could write," he allotted quietly after a long moment.

And so he started. He stayed somewhat sober during the weeks in which he wrote his first novel, a story in which a young man sells himself to another, much older, for the promise of power. It sold quite well in both the wizarding and nonwizarding worlds. So well that Draco gave half his previous savings to his mother and promised to visit, used the rest of his savings to buy a modest house just to the outside of London and decided to live on his own. It was a rash decision, and without his mother or house elves there to take care of him (he had one visit on Tuesdays and Fridays to clean his house and do his laundry, he wasn't a barbarian!) he slowly slipped back into his old, drunken habits, though he still wrote.

His novels had ever darker plots as he pushed everyone away. By the time he turned twenty-four, even his mother had stopped calling and the dark mark on his forearm was a mass of careful cuts from when the alcohol was no longer working the way he so desired.

Almost a year went by before anyone noticed that state that he had put himself in. It was only by chance that he got the help he needed. He drank too much and cut too deep the night before and the house elf who usually came had traded off with another who found him in a bloody mess on the bed and apparated him immediately to St. Mungos.

At least, that's what they told him later. He didn't remember much of those years.

All Draco remembered was waking up with a miserable headache with a burning sensation on his arm and the rest of him feeling incredibly numb. It was a while before he could look around or move, but when he did he saw that they had healed his arm but left the dark mark in the condition it had been before Draco started torturing it. He felt like crying and blinked back the stinging.

When he could he looked across the room and there had been Ginny, looking incredibly pale and sweaty, with a flurry of healers around her.

In the dream, however, she wasn't there. Where she should have been lay only an empty bed and a sinking, empty feeling of utter loneliness. He panicked and flailed until he had rid himself of the covers and was out of bed and onto the floor in a clump. An alarm went off somewhere in the distance.

* * *

Ginny woke up to Draco screaming in his sleep.

She rubbed her eyes groggily for a moment, before curling towards him and brushing his hair off of his forehead in a calming rhythm, shaking him gently to try and wake him. "Draco, sweetheart," she said, used to his night terrors after months by his side. When shaking him failed to work, she slapped him hard across the face and he woke with a start.

"Huh?" he said disoriented.

"You were screaming, love," Ginny said softly with a soft, caring smile. A wisp of hair had escaped behind her ear and hung down to tickle his nose.

"You were gone," he mumbled softly, and then after a moment, "I couldn't bear it."

Ginny's face crumbled and she pulled him close to her chest, kissing the top of Draco's head repeatedly. "I love you darling," she whispered to him, "I'll never leave; you'll never have to bear it."

* * *

**A/N: Updated 2/13/13**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I'm back! (And I made the Dean's list while I was gone!)**

**I finally pieced this bit together after a long struggle with length (there just wasn't enough of it) and consistency (there wasn't much of that either). I hope you guys really enjoy this chapter as much as I do. As before, I own none of these characters and JK Rowling can even have my plot if she wants it, though I don't know why she would.**

**Now, time to enjoy and review if you like it!**

* * *

A couple days later, Draco awoke to the sounds of someone moving about in the kitchen. His heart flew directly into his throat and his appendages grew icy. He forced himself to take a deep, soothing breath as he removed himself from the sheets tangled around him.

A loud and lengthy clatter sounded from the kitchen, setting Draco's teeth on edge. He was almost certain that a burglar of any kind would at least strive to make less racket than that which was careening down the hallway to his pillowed ear, but just in case the burglar was just rather dull, Draco fished his wand from the pocket of yesterday's rumpled jeans which were half-stuffed beneath the bed. Each footstep he took seemed much too loud for how careful he was being, the floor creaking under his bare feet. He crept, cat-like, on tip-toe towards the kitchen, peering around the corner to see just whom was making so much noise there.

He saw the curve of a back bending down and drew his wand to catch the trespasser unawares, but she stood up revealing herself to be Ginny bustling around her own kitchen, making what looked to be her infamous tarts. At the moment, she was paused with a hand rubbing the small of her back with a variety of ingredients spread out before her.

"Ginny?" Draco exclaimed, tucking his wand behind him when he saw his beloved, "Shouldn't you be at the bakery?"

Ginny jumped, startled at his presence, and turned to look at him. Her pained expression immediately melted into one of amusement as her eyes alighted on Draco in his sleeping attire. Or rather, lack of. She took her sweet time dragging her eyes up his body, and though he was rather confident with himself, Draco felt his cheeks burn ever so slightly.

"Have you forgotten what today is?" she asked him, returning to her baking when she had made him satisfyingly uncomfortable.

Draco felt a mild, panicky feeling at the concept of forgetting something, but tried to stay cool, calling, "Of course I haven't," after himself as he made his way back to their bedroom in search of something to cover himself with.

"Well, did you expect me to go to work today?" she asked, her voice trailing down the hallway. Draco pulled a pair of sweatpants from the dresser near the foot of their bed and stepped into them, sliding them up his lanky legs so that they hung on his hips. He forwent a shirt and started back towards the rest of the house.

"No, I suppose not," replied Draco, pretending that he knew what he was talking about.

"And yet, you were so surprised to find me in the kitchen," said Ginny, mostly to herself. She paused a long moment, and though Draco knew what the next question was he kept playing innocent right up until it was asked. "So, what exactly is today, darling?" asked Ginny, her face a mixture of amusement and something tricky. Her green eyes flashed and Draco lamented, not for the first time, that she had not been put into Slytherin with her cunning.

Draco thought it best to be frank and dropped the act, "No idea, I was hoping you'd tell me, really."

Ginny's burst of laughter was so abrupt that Draco was startled and jumped ever so slightly. Ginny smiled, "Today's the day of the Weasely family dinner," Draco's face was still rather blank, so she continued, "I was going to tell them about you...you could even come, if you'd like."

Draco's mouth twitched into a smile at that prospect, but said nothing besides, "Is there anything I can help you with, love?" He entered the kitchen and picked up a half mixed bowl she had neglected to take her tarts from the oven.

"Am I to assume that's a yes?" she asked.

He started mixing, "I honestly haven't decided yet," he said, mulling over the opportunity to shock the Weasel.

"Well, could you talk me through your decision?" she asked, walking to the fridge. She grabbed her wand from a slot in the counter and with a flick, one of the large bowls followed her, hovering at roughly waist height. "I could maybe help, as it is my family," she mentioned, bending carefully to pull the desired fruits from the crisper. They rolled into the bowl which wobbled slightly with each addition.

"Well," said Draco slowly, leaning against the wall as he stirred, "On the side of me being nice, I wouldn't want you to go alone. I mean, that would be incredibly stressful and I don't particularly want to do that to you. I mean to protect you from friction like that."

"And on the side of you being not so nice?" asked Ginny, chuckling slightly.

"Well, the look on the Weasel's-I mean, your brother's-Ron's face would be so priceless if I showed up," replied Draco, smirking to himself.

"You are evil, aren't you?" laughed Ginny, squinting playfully in his direction.

"Well, I wouldn't put it that way," Draco replied, smiling. He was thinking to himself how adorable she was, laughing and happy for no other reason than their words mingling while she baked. She was so innocent, but in a way that seemed far from naive He wanted to scoop her up in his arms and never let her go. He settled on moving closer while continuing to stir, knowing that acting upon his fantastical whims would not be productive at the current time.

"And what are your arguments against going?" asked Ginny.

"Well," thought Draco aloud, "I feel as though the conversation might not go as...peacefully if I am present. I mean, my arrival alone would be a shock to your family, whom you are relatively close to, and you would not be able to choose the way you wanted to reveal the information to them that way. I'm sure there might be a tactful or...perhaps a lucrative time when you could introduce the idea of me or announce our engagement. I mean, one moment has to outweigh another and if I come with, you wouldn't have that opportunity.

"Plus," he added, "I kind of feel like I might be not wanted or out of place in such a position."

Ginny neglected what she was tending to and looked him full in the face, her features a collaboration of confusion and shock.

"What?" he asked her, mildly amused and alarmed.

Ginny just shook her head and said in a tone of mocking awe, "Draco Malfoy would feel out of place. Draco Malfoy would feel discomfort. Draco Malfoy would notice those who were not him."

"That's it," he said bluntly and plopped his bowl onto the counter with a clatter, launching himself at her and tackling her, as gently as he could while still getting his point across, to the ground where Ginny winced nonetheless. He wrestled with her briefly but as she had not been expecting this form of retaliation, he won easily, pinning her beneath him and holding her arms behind her. She was giggling and squirming as much as she possibly could in her new position, which was, frankly, not very much at all.

"Do you give up?" he asked her.

Ginny shook her head and continued squirming, crying, "I'm going to get you, you're just where I want you."

Draco's laugh escaped him in a short, surprised bark. "Is that so?" he teased. He considered the comment that had landed them in this position and asked quietly, "You don't really think I'm like that, do you? Oblivious and pompous?"

Ginny stopped fidgeting and murmured, "Not in the slightest, my love. You're nothing like I thought you were seven, eight, ten years ago back at Hogwarts. I mean, we're different people, completely different people now, but even then, I doubt that you were much like we decided you were."

"I suppose I was a bit like you thought I was," said Draco, smiling softly to himself.

"Can I sit up?" asked Ginny after a moment.

Draco nodded and untangled himself from her, shifting off and to the side so that she could sit and lean against him. She did just that and curled herself into the crook of his arm where she seemed to fit perfectly. Her hand dipped behind her back to rub it.

"Did I hurt you?" he asked gently, concerned.

She shook her head and mumbled, "It always hurts, lately."

Draco sat and thought about what that might mean, letting it settle over him and make his bones tingle with cold. He pulled her tighter to his chest and kissed the part of her hair, breathing in her scent to prevent himself from crying.

"We'll go back soon," she said softly, "Until then, there's no need for you to worry."

"I will anyway," he said softly. They sat, curled together for a long while.

* * *

Five hours later, Ginny's tarts were expertly prepared and sat, piled precariously onto a platter ready to go to the Weasley family dinner. Ginny looked just as edible, in Draco's opinion, wearing a thin, pale blue summer dress that didn't quite reach her knees. He had to actively stop himself from touching her shoulders when they passed each other Draco had opted not to go with and had moved back everything in his schedule so that he would go to work while she went to the dinner and they would, in theory, arrive home at about the same time.

"It's probably better this way," Ginny repeated, more to herself than Draco, though it eased both of their nerves.

Draco kissed her forehead, "Good luck."

Ginny smiled up at him and pecked him on the nose. "Pssh, I don't need luck," she said, her voice oozing with false confidence. He just smiled at her.

She picked up the platter and walked to the door where she smoothed her skirt before getting ready to apparate. "I love you!" called Draco at the last minute.

Ginny's grin broke her face in half it was so wide and sudden. She giggled softly and nodded, saying, "I love you, too." She then turned before she could change her mind about going and apparated to just outside the Burrow. Draco took a deep breath, nodded, and went off to work.

* * *

**A/N: Who's excited for the next chapter, I'm excited for the next chapter. And a little worried.**

**Does anyone want to guess Ginny's family's reactions?**

**A/N: Updated 2/13/13**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi everyone, I don't have much to say about this chapter except that it was very hard to write for me. I hope you find it interesting**.

**As before, and as always, I own no part of the Potterverse, I just write the plot.**

**Read, Review, and Enjoy!**

* * *

Ginny's feet landed unsteadily upon the uneven ground that surrounded the Burrow. She had forgotten how ill-kept the yard was and had elected to wear tall, strappy, silver heels that made her legs look phenomenal. She stumbled the first few steps and only managed to keep her tarts upon the platter with the help of the magic embedded into it. She knew she had made a good investment with the Anti-Spill trays that strange, incredibly petite old woman had been selling, even if they had smelled strangely of onions and something mildly decrepit for the first several washes.

The Burrow hadn't changed at all since the last time she visited. Garden gnomes roamed the yard, the chickens milled around lazily, and the hose towered precariously above everything. Ginny took a deep breath and walked calmly towards her childhood home, arms outstretched to the sides slightly to keep her balance, doing everything she could not to burst into a jog which would have been a poor replacement to the times she sprinted around the yard taunting her brothers, years ago.

She approached the door and raised her free hand to knock upon the door only to have it pull open before her and to be swept into her Mother's soft hug. An arm reached over her mother's shoulder and plucked a tart from the tray. As Ginny pulled away from her mother, she got to watch the confection disappear into George's mouth in much less time than it had taken to make. He grinned, wiped a bit of the cream cheese based filling from his upper lip, and gripped the plate, hoisting it over his mother's head and into the house.

"How are you darling?" asked Molly, ushering her inside the house with a hand in the middle of her back, "You look quite well, not too skinny, you must be eating well at the bakery."

Ginny smiled and stepped into her childhood home, having forgotten how it bustled with activity when everyone was present. She could hear Charlie, Percy, and Bill arguing politics with her father in the living room. Luna and Hermione milled at the far end of the table, talking to a pretty, dark-skinned woman Ginny recognized as Angelina. Fleur and Audrey giggled quite near them, Victoria and little Molly toddling around their feet and over to Ron, Harry, and George who batted a snitch about, over the food as they stole morsels, to her mother's protests.

"Look who's here?!" Ginny's mother exclaimed, startling her daughter from a daze.

Everyone in the room turned to look at her, murmuring about how well she looked, and calling out their congratulations. This kind of greeting was not abnormal lately, but it always made her feel mildly strange.

"Oh, you look so lovely!" Hermione exclaimed, grabbing a pair of drinks from the table and weaved her way over to Ginny. Hermione handed her friend one and took a large gulp from the other, whispering softly, "I'd forgotten how incredibly dull Fleur can be, my word..."

"I would think Luna would help with that," Ginny said, laughing, and taking a sip from her own glass.

Hermione shrugged and said, "One would hope." She giggled a little and Ginny squinted at her slightly.

"How many of those have you had?" Ginny asked.

Hermione shrugged again, smiled widely, still giggling, and said, "Not enough!"

Ginny just shook her head and kissed her friend on the cheek, telling her that she'd be back shortly. She ducked and dodged her way through the boys and into the den where the men sat around, just as into the spirit of the party as Hermione appeared to be. Bill was speaking excitedly about something that had happened at the bank and waved his warms about with enthusiasm, spilling his drink onto Charlie's lap. Charlie looked surprised for a moment and the, threw back his long mop of red hair and roared with laughter. Percy looked upon the two with a smirk peering from beneath his forced disdain.

"Ginny!" exclaimed her father, standing and opening his arms for her to walk into. As it always seemed lately, he looked much too old and frail to be the man she had grown up climbing upon. She hugged him tightly, and he hugged her back with equal vigor, having kept most of his strength despite his having aged. "It's good to see you, darling. How have things gone at the bakery?"

"Oh, they're going really well!" she said, smiling at him, "Thanks to George I've been having a lot more business than I ever hoped I would, originally. Did he tell you about his awful cookies?"

And they sat and chatted together, Ginny gesturing excitedly as they spoke of George's scheme and then they moved on to interesting customers then new recipes, and as Ginny gestured excitedly, Arther noticed something peculiar on her finger and caught her hand in his. Ginny's gushing over a recent strudel recipe evaporated as he stared at her ring. She hadn't thought about how difficult it would be to tell her parents of her engagement. How they might shun her as well.

She thought of denying it or claiming it a bauble she'd picked up while shopping with Hermione and Luna some distant weekend ago, but she knew her father wasn't stupid and that he could likely tell expensive jewelry from something she could afford on her own knut.

"Ginny, Darling, is there something you'd like to tell your old father?" asked Arthur, curious.

She resigned herself to telling him, took a soft breath, and said, "I'm in love, Daddy. Engaged." Ginny was unable to keep a slow smile from spreading across her face.

"And who's the lucky man?" asked Arthur, his smile expectant.

"Draco Malfoy," said Ginny quickly, her words running together. She thought that if she said them fast it would be like not saying them at all. That perhaps he would hear something instead of the name she said. The name that belonged to the man she loved.

Arthur's face revealed very little. He took a hard gulp of the drink that sat to his left. "That boy...his family...do you realize what his father's done to this family? How poor we've been due to his incessant hatred? How-"

Ginny cut him off, her notion of getting through the conversation calmly flying out the window. "He's no longer a boy, he's a man. A kind and generous man who is _nothing_ like his father or anyone else I've met."

"He's a bloody Slytherin whose words can convince you of anything."

"I love him, Daddy," said Ginny, her voice louder than she had intended. Bill and Charlie turned to look at them, their conversation falling away. The house seemed strangely quiet.

"Who do you love, dear?" asked Molly, popping her head into the den. She had a smudge of chocolate next to her mouth and Ginny felt a wave of endearment wash over her for her family. She thought of how lovely her childhood had been. How it had always been loud full of color and people and just plain wonderful.

Arthur startled everyone by saying, "She loves that Malfoy boy."

"No," said Ginny, "I'm engaged to that Malfoy boy." Ginny hadn't realized that the silence could increase tenfold. It seemed to surround her and more than anything she just wanted to sink into it. To let it surround her so that she could escape their looks of shock, confusion, and betrayal. "You don't understand!" she said defensively.

"No, Ginny, you don't understand," said her father, slowly and with venom. "The things that family's done in the name of pureblood and you've gone and fallen in love with the heir!" Ginny wasn't sure she had ever seen her father this mad. Usually it was Molly who yelled, her father was known to be silent and disappointed when his children made him angry. The last time he yelled, if Ginny remembered correctly, was when Percy had chosen the minister over the family.

"Don't you listen to me?" screamed Ginny, "He's not his father."

"He's just as pompous, just as arrogant, just as f-"

"Daddy, he saved me!"

"Saved you how?" asked Molly, her voice cutting through the fight. It was soft and calm and the tiniest bit frightened.

Ginny turned to her mother, acutely aware of everyone's attention placed upon her. Everyone looked as though she had killed someone near and dear to them. Even Hermione and Harry, who already knew, looked rather apprehensive. Only Luna looked hopeful, if the tiniest bit dazed. "When I was in Saint Mungos last year, he was the main reason behind how well and how quickly I recovered. I do not believe I would be here as healthy as I am now if it were not for Draco Malfoy."

Arthur looked as though she'd slapped him soundly across the face. Ginny dared not turn to look at her mother's face for fear of what she'd witness.

"Saved you?" asked Ron angrily, "Saved you how? It's not as if Malfoy's any kind of Healer. He's just a rich, pompous, whiny momma's-boy who-"

"_Ronald_," Hermione cut him off with a hiss, "You're a much different man than you were when you left Hogwarts, perhaps Draco's changed, too. Maybe we ought to give Ginny the benefit of the doubt until we can see-"

And suddenly the room was a flurry of voices, each betraying their own doubts and concerns. Each growing louder and louder as they realized no one was hearing them. Ginny turned to her friends to try and plead with them when she was cut off before she even started.

"No," said Molly abruptly. Everyone turned to look at the matriarch of the family. "I'll not stand for it. You'll speak no more of this, _marrying_ the Malfoy boy. No. I won't allow it. You don't have my consent."

"Mum, what are you saying?" asked George from near behind her.

"I'm saying," said Molly, a quiver in her voice betraying itself forcefully, "I'm saying that as long as Ginny keeps up this silly...this infatuation, she is no longer allowed within this house. Within this family."

There was a lengthy hush while Ginny waited for someone, anyone to defy Molly and say something, anything to stand up for her. When she realized that there was no help coming, Ginny swallowed hard and jutted her chin out to keep from crying. "Move," she said to her mother.

"Excuse me?" asked Molly.

"You've made it very clear that you don't want me here. Move, so I can leave," said Ginny.

Molly stepped out of her way and Ginny sidled past her quickly, letting a few tears drop from her face and onto the floor. She ran past what seemed like her entire family, oblivious to siblings and friends grabbing at her skirt and shoulders. Ginny exited the house and ran to the edge of the yard, twirling on the spot and apparating away from what was once her home.


End file.
